TCA: Is Victoria Grayson hanging in Nolan Ross’s trailer?

The big question at the end of the freshman season of ABC’s deliciously addictive nighttime soap “Revenge” was whether Victoria Grayson survived a plane crash.

After a visit to the show’s set today and interviews with various cast members, I can officially say….

Absolutely nothing. No one’s talking. In fact, although even star Emily VanCamp was on hand, despite feeling under the weather, Madeleine Stowe was nowhere to be seen and Gabriel Mann insists that the cast hasn’t seen her since filming began on the second season recently. The show returns to ABC on Sept. 30, the network announced today.

Mann is a good actor, so who knows? But he confessed that, of all the cast members, he’s the one with the loosest lips, so no one is too ready to supply him with sensitive information.

Of course, no one seriously believes Stowe is a goner.

The show is filmed in a rather small studio near LAX. Once you’re inside, you walk into a semi-deconstructed Grayson mansion. The rooms are as you’ve seen them on TV, but actually smaller. In fact, the people are smaller too. Conor Paolo, who plays Declan, and Christa B. Allen, who plays his (at the moment) former love interest, Charlotte Grayson, could easily pass for slightly taller middle school students. Mann is tall, thin and lanky and the big news for the second season is that Nolan’s hair is going to be shorter.

Yes, it can be revealed here. Nolan got clipped. Mann hinted that he may have visited a barber after filming for the first season ended, but it appears the show creators are ok with the new do.

Mann said from the beginning of the show, his hair had been the subject of conversation, if not fierce debate, on social media. The more traditional cut may facilitate Nolan’s romantic life.

In the first season, he hooked up with Daniel Grayson’s (Joshua Bowman) evil college roommate, Tyler (Ashton Holmes), but Nolan is, Mann says, an equal opportunity lover. He’d like to see the character hook up with Emily.

VanCamp was asked if people were somehow afraid of her if they saw her on the street, given the havoc her vengeful character wreaks on the show. She laughed and said she really resembles some of the good-girl characters she’s played in family dramas in the past, notably on “Everwood.”

One reason VanCamp is so good in the role is because she can so easily project that good-girl image. But she is careful to almost underplay Emily Thorne, making the character somewhat of a blank slate on the surface, which makes it possible for us to believe her when she’s taking her revenge on those who destroyed her father.

Asked about her own taste in TV, she said she’s hooked on “Dexter” and Michael C. Hall‘s performance in the title role. It’s, of course, an interesting choice because her own character is someone who has almost as many sides as Hall’s Dexter.

The cast usually doesn’t find out what happens to their characters until a few days before shooting, and given all the twists and turns the show has taken just in its first season, that means they pretty much have to be ready for anything.

The new season will see the introduction of a couple of new characters, including Jennifer Jason Leigh as Emily’s mother. Mann, for one, is bowled over by the idea of working with her. He said her presence means he has to bring his A game, but I’m not sure how he could be any better. One of the show’s strengths is the actors’ ability to explore sometimes seemingly contradictory aspects of their characters. Nolan is loyal, shy, impetuous at times, noble at others, but what enables him to wear all of these masks is that, at heart, he’s an awkward loner. Money — lots of money– has bought him a degree of respect among the Hamptons snobs, but what motivates him is that he’s still as lonely and as much of an outsider as a rich guy as he was as a kid.

So much of why we are fascinated with Emily and Nolan, and, to an extent, Jack, is because of where and what they were earlier in their lives. That’s always the core of any of us and it leverages much of the characters’ actions as adults.

To some, “Revenge” is a guilty pleasure, but I quickly got over any feigned guilt about liking the show last year. Its success has spawned other nighttime soaps, but, frankly, it’s in a league by itself. The writing is not only better, but unlike many daytime soaps, it is careful to remain credible, even if only partially so.

Most of all, it’s just great fun.

Much as I loved hearing Mann talk about the show, I was almost as interested in his shoe choice but didn’t get a chance to ask. He had a pair of killer dove grey and lavender saddle shoes on at the end of last season, and today he had a sweet pair of black leather sneakers.

Mann has had the most interesting wardrobe on the series, and he allows as how he’s always excited when he gets to work to see what’s hanging in his trailer.